Milosevic vindicated! Sort of. Not really. No.

Have you ever wondered why it is that nobody takes the International Court of Justice seriously? Perhaps this will help.

After 14 years and countless millions of dollars, the judges at the ICJ have finally rendered a verdict on whether or not Serbia was responsible for genocide during the Bosnian war. Ready for this?

Serbia did not commit genocide, but was responsible for failing to stop genocide by the Serbian military.

Got that? Some mysterious, yet very well known, persons - apparently acting in accordance with the Serbian political leadership - permitted genocide to occur in Srebenica, but the Serbian government cannot be held accountable ... except morally! Therefore, Serbia is not obligated to compensate Bosnia with monetary damages, but apparently, is sort of genocidal all the same. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe?

Well, then! Now that the International Community has done its duty, however half-assed, I suppose we can finally let Slobodan Milošević out of jail, secure that his government was NOT responsible for genocide!

D'oh. I guess we can't.

On the plus side, I can't wait to find out who or what the International Court of Justice believes may have been responsible for that mysterious, mighta-been-genocide thingy in Rwanda.

UPDATE: David Luban at Slate reads my mind.